#3) TANK, TANK, TANK. 10th place (in overall NBA standings right now) ~ 24-39, w/ 19 games remaining. Hypothetically speaking, we could finish as poorly as 24-58 (which wouldn't be THAT hard). That'd probably be enough to get us into top-3 pick territory. And, bad lotto-luck notwithstanding, that'd probably be enough to get us into position to add a legit superstar alongside Drummond in Andrew Wiggins or Jabari Parker.

#4) Sign Greg Monroe to a max-contract extension and trade him for a pick high enough to get Marcus Smart. I like a lot of the trade options I listed in the previous post a lot, and I think most of them are realistic, but I like Marcus Smart more (along with his cheap rookie contract).

#5) Sign a max-contract free agent. There are some nice RFA's set to hit the market, but top-tier RFA's are almost impossible to ink, and Lance Stephenson is the top UFA available (who fits).

5. Pistons sign Josh Smith to play small forward. (Uh-oh. OK, this could work as long as Josh doesn't launch a ton of jumpers)

6. Josh Smith launches a metric ton of jumpers. (Welp.)

7. Pistons start to play Monroe and to a lesser extend Drummond less and less in fourth quarters. (Well, if you have to switch things up, then...)

8. The Pistons become arguably the worst fourth-quarter team in the league. (Welp 2.0.)

9. The Pistons send out signals starting in about October that they're open to a trade of Monroe on account of not re-signing him. Despite his age, talent, and relative lack of culpability in the disaster of their season, he's the one who gets signaled as the movable component.

10. They let it be known that they intend to match any offer, even a max contract, for him in free agency.

...Do you see why everyone's kind of confused about what the hell the Pistons are doing?

Heck, here's this from Grantland.com, which indicates that the team doesn't belive he's a max player.

The Pistons are right in their belief that Monroe is not worthy of a max contract, not even of the smaller “max” players get after their rookie deals expire. A big man who is a net-minus defender and lacks shooting range is a tricky piece that needs just the right context in order to thrive. He's like a plant with picky climate requirements. The Pistons should hold the line, even though they — and the entire NBA world — know Monroe's agent, David Falk, has made a career of finding the one suitor willing to make that max bid. Nearly a dozen teams will have max-level cap space, or something close to it, this summer.

Moose is the terrific bench player we need behind the Smith/Drummond frontcourt. You need scoring? Go with Smith/Moose. You need defense? Go with Smith/Drummond. Moose can spell both of the bigs at either position. Moose is not a problem. Hydra is the problem.

The ideal scenario is we keep Moose and find a major upgrade at the wing.

Well, I really see no evidence you read any of my posts either. Not really read them. Maybe find something to argue about. But certainly no effort seen to try to understand anything I write.

As my post stated, the oft mentioned moving Smith to power forward lacks one very important thing. A small forward to replace him. We do not have one.

So, we would have to trade Monroe for a small forward so that we would have a small forward.

And that means, we just have Drummond and Smith for bigs. And nobody at all with any talent to rest them. Unless you think each could simply play 48 minutes every game?

We need to add another big. Preferrably two. And we might have them already on the team. If Harrellson is not injured, we should be playing him to see what we have. And Tony Mitchell should be playing too, so we can see what we have. If they can't play, again, we need to add more bigs to the roster.

Now, as for other teams with 4 quality bigs. So far, from what I can see, the Pistons have five quality bigs. Harrellson, Mitchell, Smith, Monroe, and Drummond. The problem, in my opinion, is that we only are playing 3 of them.

Many teams have 4 quality bigs. Not great ones, like Smith, Drummond, or Monroe, but good enough to play, especially in cases of foul trouble. Lets take the Wiz, for example, a team I follow on an every game basis. Heck, they got a guy who often does not play, who is pretty darn good, because they are simply that deep at the bigs position. Saraphin, a guy who whooped on us in one particular game this season. Mostly these days, they start Nene and Gortat. But Booker is also pretty good and has many starts this season. They just added Gooden on top of that, and Al Harrington is playing now. At the moment, they have about 6 quality bigs on their squad, although the number varies game to game depending on who is injured.

Most of the season, Orlando had five quality bigs on the team, although its borderline I guess if you want to count JMAX, who has started a lot of game but is out of their rotation these days. Obviously, they got their starting center, Vucevic. Plus they got Nicholson and O'Quinn. They did have Big Baby too but just let him go recently. So, they are down to four, counting JMAX.

I could go on and on here, if you really want me too. But the main point, I'd take a lot of the above players, and dump guys like Singler, JJ, and CV, who have made appearances as power forwards on our team this season, to our deep regret.

Wait, I do want to mention Toronto, which has been going great guns since that trade. A big part of that is that they got two pretty darn good bigs, giving them 5 guys who have since seen a lot of time at their bigs positions. Any of these five, added to our team, would be an upgrade, by far, to what we play now beyound our 3 front line starters.

Well, I really see no evidence you read any of my posts either. Not really read them. Maybe find something to argue about. But certainly no effort seen to try to understand anything I write.

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I will sometimes skip your posts for a month or two, but I have read as many of your posts as anyone. They are very repetitive. If I pay too much attention to your posts, you claim you're being singled out and ostracized, so I try not to reply to all of your posts.

Also, there is the matter of being happy and psychologically stable, and I find arguing on forums to be counter to that for me. Everyone has an opinion. Some may be better than others, but for the most part, we're all on the outside speculating on what is within.

All of that aside, I have a hard time believing that you don't know that Smith is terrible at the 3, and the big 3 lineups have been consistently horrible. Trading Monroe is a thing because of his contract status. Retaining your FOUR BIGS AGAINST THE WORLD paradigm with Monroe would necessitate spending a lot more money on what has been a losing proposition.

That and Monroe is very inconsistent, he's not a defender (atrocious on defense) and he hasn't developed a jumpshot in 4 years.

We need to add another big. Preferrably two. And we might have them already on the team. If Harrellson is not injured, we should be playing him to see what we have. And Tony Mitchell should be playing too, so we can see what we have. If they can't play, again, we need to add more bigs to the roster.

Now, as for other teams with 4 quality bigs. So far, from what I can see, the Pistons have five quality bigs. Harrellson, Mitchell, Smith, Monroe, and Drummond. The problem, in my opinion, is that we only are playing 3 of them.

Many teams have 4 quality bigs. Not great ones, like Smith, Drummond, or Monroe, but good enough to play, especially in cases of foul trouble. Lets take the Wiz, for example, a team I follow on an every game basis. Heck, they got a guy who often does not play, who is pretty darn good, because they are simply that deep at the bigs position. Saraphin, a guy who whooped on us in one particular game this season. Mostly these days, they start Nene and Gortat. But Booker is also pretty good and has many starts this season. They just added Gooden on top of that, and Al Harrington is playing now. At the moment, they have about 6 quality bigs on their squad, although the number varies game to game depending on who is injured.

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Drew Gooden is ok I guess but Kevin S is garbage. I think you mean 'rotation quality bigs', not just 'quality bigs'.

I am with everyone else on the guards, but I think we are in between a rock and a hard place. I can not see why we would keep any of them, bar KCP as a backup for the defensive end and if you can somehow convince Jennings to accept he isn't starter calibre (on a Pistons team that would be even harder). BJ would be the Bynum upgrade off the bench - both can go on scoring runs, but BJ would give you more assists and more chance of a 3 point threat. Likely that this isn't possible though so trade is the other option. We didn't overpay to get him at the start of the season, but now he has been on two teams and still stunk it up, we would need to trade him as part of a package to get anything decent in return.

Moving Monroe for a starter calibre wing is also the most obvious move. Also one of the most risky. He is very good in the (offensive) post and we would then need to hope Drummond develops this side of his game and that Smith can be convinced to work closer to the basket. Something no one has been able to do so far.

Basically, I think what will happen is this though - Monroe trade for a starter wing or 2 guard that can shoot and a few bench moves following Stuckey, CV, Siva and Billup's exit. We will still have BJ at the point though, so his progression (if any) and the hopeful upgrade of our bench moves will be what gets us back in the playoff picture.